The Realm of Rigidity or what's unusual
by Cheryl McCrusher
Summary: Sheldon and Penny slip into a very weird situation that is something completely new for both of them. Develops somewhere between an intellectual catastrophe and almost human behaviour. Kinda romantic but I try very hard to stay in character. It's my first BBT story, I really need a beta because English IS NOT my native language. In German mothertongue I'm probably more eloquent.
1. The morning routine devastation

Subtle was the rustling that crawled up to his ears and woke him from a particularly good sleep.

He immediately forgot about his dream as he jolted up screaming "DANGER!"

His view still blurry, he identified a well known pictogram on pink cloth that raised a slight anger inside his still sleepy mind. Raising his gaze from her 'Hello Kittie'-panties and rubbing his eyes, he threw her a "Penny, no one enters my room.", carefully adjusting his tongue to the movement needed to speak, which he always found hard to do in the morning. Usually he made sure not to face any social interaction before he hadn't brushed his teeth.

The woman standing in front of his cabinet only answered briefly, her head bent over the top drawer, hands rummaging through his stuff "It's urgent."

"Woman, what the fresh hell are you doing with my personal belongings?", exclaimed Sheldon, suddenly fully awake, as he slid out of his cocoonishly draped blanket and jumped out of bed.

"Where is that little box of baby wipes that you always carry around in your satchel?", she asked, now fully facing the tall and lean man standing behind her, face flushed with agitation, still bearing the imprint of his pillowcase, which caused her to chuckle a little.

Oblivious to that, Sheldon looked down at her with a puzzled expression.

"Why on earth would you go through my drawers to find something so ordinary, just go to a shop and buy some." "Because, as I said, it's freakin' urgent and I know you always have heaps of them in stock.", she shot him impatiently. Bewildered, he opened the drawer underneath, grabbed one of the little blue packages and handed it over to her. This behaviour was awkward, even for Penny who he knew to be an unpredictable source of trouble for him. He didn't like it to be unable to predict things, his calculations always made sense and never surprised him unpleasantly, so why could this woman, who obviously was part of the physical universe, not just obey its rules and be as easy to treat?  
She quickly thanked him and ushered out of his room, saying something about explaining everything later.

Thus he was left there standing alone and unsure whether to be angry or just utterly confused. She interfered with his schedule. That was very rude of her. Now he had to sanitise his cabinet, put its contents back into order and try to find a morning routine for this peculiar day. Just how much more peculiar it would get was yet out of his knowing.


	2. The Police Prophecy

**Hey guys, thanks a lot for the great reviews. I don't quite understand though why I got so many E-mails that said that I have a new review and then only some of them actually appear on my story. However, I'm continuing with it so far and believe me, I thought a lot about whether to write it in English or not. But I really want many people to be able to read it. I'd find it much easier to write it in German, thus being able to embellish the story a lot more but this is just no challenge. Also I read so many FFs that were full of errors even I could find and it's not even my first language in both phrasing and spelling, so I thought people might actually be willing to give my story a chance even if it's not always correct in terms of grammar etc.  
I'm still looking for a beta-reader, so please help, if you can! I got one review that kinda disappeared too which said that I will "definitely need one". That was a little damper but I trust you to write me if there are too many mistakes. Thanks to **_**Breathless Faith**_** for your mail and your annotations. I appreciated that but I just want to emphasize that I basically learnt English in Great Britain, so whether something is AE or BE isn't really a reason for me to change words, especially since I've seen other BBT-FFs that use British terms as well. I hope you do not feel offended by that.  
Now enjoy the next chapter, I hope, you'll like it. It's not the big YEAH yet but there is more to come. ;)  
**  
Sheldon stood in the hallway, just checking his letterbox and retrieving his mail. He was fairly satisfied with his day so far, after Penny's unfortunate appearance in his room this morning, he had succeeded in living a rather regular order of events. Even his bowel movements had, after the initial confusion caused by the 27 minutes early breakfast, found a satisfactory rhythm. Yes, he thought, life could be quite nice if it complied with his scheduling.  
Just this precious moment of Cooper-peace was the call for a certain blonde to enter the building, muttering to herself.  
He let out a small sigh and steadied himself for the inevitably upcoming small talk. As he turned around, he saw that Penny was in fact not muttering to herself. She was accompanied by a small toddler, who he estimated to be about two years old.  
She was just about to pick up the little girl (she wore a pink and ragged kind of dress) to carry her up the three flights of stairs, as he approached her with three quick steps of his long legs.  
He arched an eyebrow: "Excuuuuse me? May I ask how a single woman with questionable moral standards and a monthly salary that doesn't pay the rent just adopted an infant so quickly? I will probably have to report you, Penny, I-" "Hush, Sheldon!", she hissed back, an annoyed and worn expression on her face. "I've had a very tough day and I'm not going to deal with your mumble-jumble right now."  
She proceeded to climb the stairs with an intimidated looking child in her arms and Sheldon stood there, confused by his neighbour not answering his questions at all.  
He shook his head and then went upstairs himself.  
Arriving on the third floor, he saw her harshly closing the door behind her and a weak whimper escaped the child at this sudden noise.  
He drew his glance away from the door, fumbled out his key and got into his apartment, where Leonard sat on the sofa, watching "Millennium".  
"For God's sake why would anybody want to watch this voluntarily when there is so much better on TV? If you feel the urge to watch a series by Chris Carter then be so kind and at least watch the X-files."  
"Great to see you too, Sheldon", Leonard answered without even looking up at him. The tall man gave him a puzzled look and put his satchel on the chair by his bureau. He headed straight back for the door and added: "I'm over at Penny's, she appears to turn out to be the felon I always suspected her to be."  
Leonard thought for a moment, then shook his head and shrugged of this comment as part of Sheldon's usual weirdness, although the name of their beautiful neighbour had caught his attention at first.

*knock, knock, knock*  
"Penny!"  
*knock, knock, knock*  
"Penny!"  
*knock, knock, knock*  
"Penny!"

A few seconds later, she opened the door, a glass of baby food in one hand.  
"What?", she asked, a thin film of sweat covering her face.  
"May I enter and get some explanations, e.g. concerning the whereabouts of my baby wipes?"  
She rolled her eyes and let him in, moving back to the stove where the water was now boiling and put in the glass she was holding. Sheldon stood in front of her sofa, unsure what to do next, as the little girl lay there, obviously sound asleep.  
Penny carefully eyed the glass bouncing up and down in the boiling water as she heard Sheldon clear his throat. She looked over at him and saw that he felt uncomfortable with the situation.  
She gestured him to come over and with one last look at the sleeping child, he strolled over to her counter.  
"What is going on here? I might have to call the police if you don't tell me", he said, eyeing her intensely, his arms crossed in front of his "Green Lantern"-shirt.  
She took a deep breath. "Sweetie, I'd be more than happy if you could keep this to yourself for a while."  
He nodded, still not able to suppress a slight twitch of his left eye as he knew this would be some sort of a secret. He could not keep secrets. His mother didn't raise him to be a liar.  
"There was a shootout on the Pasadena-Boulevard this morning before I went to work. Bernadette was working at this time and she called me, sounding very shaken. The little girl had run away because apparently her abusive father had been stalking her mother until he found her this morning and shot her in broad daylight. She was crying when she came in and her father was running after her. Some people in the Cheesecake-Factory stopped him and Bernadette hid the girl in the kitchen. After that she called me and asked me to bring some stuff for her, since she was a mess.  
The police went after the man and the child was totally overlooked. When we called them, they sent a social worker who decided it would be best for her to be somewhere, where her father can't trace her down. So it was either the police station or at Bernadette's or my place. I agreed to bring her here because I have the most space. It's incredibly important that no one knows where we hide her. Do you understand that?"  
When Penny had finished, she looked very worried and exhausted. She knew how to take care of a child, she had looked after her younger siblings back in Nebraska but this time it was a much bigger responsibility that she had to carry on her shoulders and she wanted to protect this little human being with all she had. She knew she couldn't keep out Sheldon since he would definitely stick his nose into anything suspicious she was possibly doing. Sooner or later the other boys would find out too but she needed time to determine what she was going to do before she would talk to any more people than necessary.


End file.
